Hear Me Out: A Meta-Analysis of Third-Party Disability Due to Presbycusis.

OBJECTIVES: Hearing-related third-party disability is the transferrable impact of presbycusis on an affected individual's surrounding social network. Previous research suggests that interventions to overcome hearing-related communication challenges benefit both the individual with presbycusis and their communication partner. However, there have been no comparisons of the effects of different interventions on third-party disability. We conducted meta-analyses of hearing aid or communication-based longitudinal interventions to determine if: both kinds of interventions significantly benefit communication partners across three categories of third-party disability (communication, emotional health and lifestyle outcomes), hearing aid and communication interventions differ in the size of treatment effects, and demographic variables moderate intervention efficacy. DESIGN: Four databases were systematically searched for studies published after 1990 that included preintervention and postintervention data for communication partners of individuals receiving a hearing aid or communication-based intervention. Studies were included if participants had presbycusis, were aged 45 or over, with no known physical or mental disorders, and had a willing study partner over 18 years old. Databases were last comprehensively and hand-searched in January 2023. One researcher applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select studies and complete data extraction. Depending on study design, risk of bias was assessed using the "Quality Assessment Tool for Before-After (Pre-Post) Studies with No Control Group" or the "Risk of Bias 2." Random effects models were run for effect sizes for both intervention types (together and separately) for each third-party disability category. Meta-regressions were run to inspect the effect of demographic variables on intervention efficacy. RESULTS: Six studies satisfied inclusion criteria and showed that for both hearing and communication interventions, communication partners experienced significant improvements in all three outcomes. Communication interventions showed greater benefits for lifestyle outcomes, but hearing aid and communication interventions did not differ for communication and emotional health outcomes. Meta-regressions revealed previously undetected relationships between demographic variables and intervention efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this meta-analysis and meta-regressions may have clinical and real-world implications in terms of highlighting the widespread benefits of these interventions, and the need to build in greater consideration of an individual's wider network when designing and implementing interventions. Noted limitations included certain combinations of intervention type and third-party disability category that were underrepresented (in absolute and/or relative terms), a lack of combined intervention (hearing aids and communication training) studies, and variation in the types of questionnaires used between studies. The current study discusses possible ways to unite the current literature for more consistent research practices.

Teaching Elaborative Reminiscing to Support Autobiographical Memory and Relationships in Residential and Community Aged Care Services.

Memories of the past are critically important as we age. For older adults receiving formal care in a range of settings, reminiscing with care staff may provide frequent opportunities for recalling autobiographical memories with a supportive conversational partner. Importantly, prior research suggests that some reminiscing conversations are more supportive than others. In the developmental literature, a long tradition of sociocultural memory research has shown how children's autobiographical memory is scaffolded and supported by parents during reminiscing, when parents use a particular kind of conversational technique, known as "elaborative reminiscing". In the current project, we aimed to examine whether we could enhance conversations between staff and older people receiving aged care by teaching care staff about these beneficial conversational techniques and supporting them to reminisce more often with residents/clients. We also aimed to determine whether staff members' use of elaborative reminiscing techniques was associated with autobiographical memory details recalled by residents/clients during routine conversations. We conducted a workshop with 16 staff within a residential aged care and community care setting. We followed this with a 4-week training-and-feedback period during which staff recorded their conversations with residents and clients. Staff feedback indicated successful use of the scaffolding techniques overall, and benefits as well as barriers to their use in day-to-day practice. Analysis of the conversations demonstrated that the use of particular elaborative reminiscing techniques by staff was associated with increased recall of episodic and semantic autobiographical memory details by residents/clients. Overall, findings suggest that the principles of elaborative reminiscing may apply across the lifespan, and that the benefits of elaborative reminiscing for autobiographical memory may be particularly important in times of cognitive need. Practically, training aged care staff in specific and practical conversational tools can facilitate reminiscing for people receiving aged care.

Stress and Coping in Older Australians During COVID-19: Health, Service Utilization, Grandparenting, and Technology Use.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on health and lifestyle factors for older adults in Sydney, Australia. The study examined demographic differences, social engagement, loneliness, physical activity, emotion regulation, technology use, and grandparenting experiences and their contribution to emotional health and quality of life during lockdown. METHODS: Participants were 201 community-dwelling older adults (60-87 years, M = 70.55, SD = 6.50; 67.8% female) who completed self-report scales measuring physical and emotional health outcomes, quality of life, health service utilization, changes in diet and physical activity, impacts on grandparenting roles, and uptake of new technology. RESULTS: One-third of older adults experienced depression, and 1 in 5 experienced elevated anxiety and/or psychological distress during lockdown. Specific emotion regulation strategies, better social and family engagement, and new technology use were associated with better emotional health and quality of life; 63% of older adults used new technologies to connect with others. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults were adaptable and resilient during lockdown, demonstrating high uptake of new technologies to remain connected to others, while negative emotional health outcomes were linked to loneliness and unhelpful emotion regulation. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Further diversifying use of video technologies may facilitate improved physical and emotional health outcomes.

Hearing loss, cognition, and risk of neurocognitive disorder: evidence from a longitudinal cohort study of older adult Australians.

Addressing midlife hearing loss could prevent up to 9% of new cases of dementia, the highest of any potentially modifiable risk factor identified in the 2017 commissioned report in The Lancet. In Australia, hearing loss is the second-most common chronic health condition in older people, affecting 74% of people aged over 70. Estimates indicate that people with severe hearing loss are up to 5-times more likely to develop dementia, but these estimates vary between studies due to methodological limitations. Using data from the Sydney Memory and Aging Study, in which 1,037 Australian men and women aged between 70 and 90 years were enrolled and completed biennial assessments from 2005-2017, investigations between hearing loss and baseline cognitive performance as well as longitudinal risk of neurocognitive disorder were undertaken. Individuals who reported moderate-to-severe hearing difficulties had poorer cognitive performances in the domains of Attention/Processing Speed and Visuospatial Ability, and on an overall index of Global Cognition, and had a 1.5-times greater risk for the neurocognitive disorder during 6-years' follow-up. Hearing loss independently predicted risk for MCI but not dementia. The presence of hearing loss is an important consideration for neuropsychological case formulation in older adults with cognitive impairment. Hearing loss may increase cognitive load, resulting in observable cognitive impairment on neuropsychological testing. Individuals with hearing loss who demonstrate impairment in non-amnestic domains may experience benefits from the provision of hearing devices; This study provides support for a randomized control trial of hearing devices for improvement of cognitive function in this group.

Divergent patterns of social cognition performance in autism and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS).

Individuals with developmental disorders frequently report a range of social cognition deficits including difficulties identifying facial displays of emotion. This study examined the specificity of face emotion processing deficits in adolescents with either autism or 22q11DS compared to typically developing (TD) controls. Two tasks (face emotion recognition and weather scene recognition) were used to explore group differences in visual scanpath strategy and concurrent recognition accuracy. For faces, the autism and 22q11DS groups demonstrated lower emotion recognition accuracy and fewer fixations compared to the TD group. Individuals with autism demonstrated fewer fixations to some weather scene stimuli compared to 22q11DS and TD groups, yet achieved a level of recognition accuracy comparable to the TD group. These findings provide evidence for a divergent pattern of social cognition dysfunction in autism and 22q11DS.